


Boys and Girls

by Demigod2405



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Female Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds), I'm not sorry about my reference to another of my works., Spencer Reid is a Rossi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24626656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demigod2405/pseuds/Demigod2405
Summary: A one-liner about Reid being left in a basket on the steps of the FBI leads to me reading another work based on it. I loved it.Made my own one-shot in a universe based on that. Written in a day so it's bad, but was fun to write.Also references another of my works but you don't need to read it at all.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & David Rossi
Comments: 3
Kudos: 201





	Boys and Girls

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue where this came from or where it's going.  
> I finally have a day off from the hospital workload, and I'm binging Criminal Minds and got to the joke Rossi made. This came from it and another work I read. Blame them.
> 
> If you wanna give me ideas for future chapters - please do!

A light flickered above her and reflected off her computer screen. It blinded her for a brief moment before settling back down and shutting off.

Spencer Reid was the only one left in the bullpen; the others went home hours ago. She was still staring at a profile board with the Unsubs’ file in her hands. Something wasn’t adding up. A boy was suspected of killing his mother, they had camera footage of it but there was also footage of the boy in different clothes in a club on the other side of town at the same time, with witnesses to back him up. It didn’t help that after the murder was in the media the boy disappeared without a trace.

Hotch hadn’t come in that day – home with a sick Jack – or else he would have dragged her home to Rossi hours ago. Her adopted father was – however - out of state at that moment, so she was safe to stay late without retribution.

Something clicked in her head, and Reid snapped the file shut before taking the stairs three at a time. Garcias’ office was locked, but Reid was Reid so that fact wasn’t right for long. Her monitors were asleep but the whirring of fans suggested the actual computers were still on. She slipped into the seat and woke the monitors up, grabbing a post-it note and an outrageously fluffy pen.

‘Did you know’ facts were Garcias’ price for letting Reid use her monitors after hours. A gift left would also mean she didn’t tell anyone how late (or early) Reid was working. Did you know that hackers create 300,000 new pieces of malware daily? She wrote the fact out in her small, left-slanting, heavily pressured, slender writing; making sure the letters were all connected and spaced evenly. With fact written, Reid booted up the screens and got to work.

She dug through the Unsubs’ family past. Checking for any sign of adoption or fostering. She found it. The parents had adopted the son from Russia when he was four during a holiday. The son is taken from his old home via a drug raid. Reid looked a little further, running the boys’ face through the facial recognition system to get more matches.

She got the pictures of the murder happening – it was clearly fuelled by anger, the Unsub crying after and panicking slightly - and the pictures of the boy at a club at the same time of night. Reid dragged the background search to another monitor and searched for the boys’ biological mother. It wasn’t the adopted mother, nor the bio dads wife – so who was it?

Karen. Of course, it was a Karen. She had had an affair with the father, gave birth to triplets. Left two with the father while taking one with her back to America after a yearlong business trip. The police raid on the fathers’ place, father in a drugged up stupor grabs one boy and leaves the other.

Now, it looked like the elder triplet was finding his brothers. The women killed was the adopted mother, most likely thought to have taken his brother away from him. Luckily that meant that the triplet wasn’t going to hurt his brothers and Reid now had the names and addresses of all three boys. Time to work.

“Reid?”

“Chief”

“Why the hell are you awake?”

“I have the name of our Unsub and the next location he going too.”

“Where?”

“Indiana”

They got the Unsub entering his brothers’ house in the early morning. Hotch called through the earpiece that the third son – the suspect – was in the Unsubs’ car. The boy – Richie – refused to cooperate, stating that ‘my brother's not a killer, he was protecting me. Like he always did! I won’t leave him! You can’t make me!” The Unsub came downstairs with the third triplet pausing when he saw them.

“It was an accident, Boris.” Reid stepped forward, holstering her gun, ignoring Morgans’ yell. “The footage shows that the shot was in a fit of anger.” She took another two steps forward, she was now out of arm’s length. The Agents behind her would have to jump forward to grab her if needed. Reid held her hands up and asked, “What did Maggie say to you”

“I dress differently from my brother” Reid could see that. Richies’ clothes were clearly thrift store but only when he wanted. His army boots were clean and fit him well, his jeans were purposefully torn rather than ripped and the leather jacket over Hawaiian shirts was clearly of good quality. Richie shopped thrift stores because he wanted to. Because he can find something unique to wear.

Boris was different. His jeans were torn and frayed, running and tripping causing a tear. The sweater was dirty and too large, his converse battered and in need of repair. Growing up with a drug addict left little money left over for clothes.

“She didn’t like it” The coldness of his voice didn’t deter Reid and she moved another two steps forward. Hotch yelled down the earpiece, letting them know that Richie has slipped his hold and was en route to his brothers. Reid simply turned her head and nodded to Emily who didn’t move to stop Richie. He raced past them and slammed into his middle brother. Mike rocked with the force and slumped onto Boris for support. Reid felt something warm sit in her chest as the brothers reunited for the first time in years. Still.

“Boris?” He turned to her and she unclipped her holster, dropping it onto the ground before taking another two steps forward. She heard both Morgan and Prentiss yell out but ignored them again, focusing on the brothers. “What did she say to you?”

“Probably nothing good…” Richie mumbled into Mikes’ chest and Reid caught it immediately.

“What do you mean by that Richie?” He sighed and shuffled around to face her.

“Look, Agent…”

“Reid, Dr Spencer Reid”

“Look, Dr Reid, my mother didn’t want me. She’s barren. It was my fathers’ idea to adopt me, try and cheer my mother up by giving her a child.”

“I’m guessing she didn’t take it like that?”

“She hated me. I was a reminder of what she could never have.” He took Boris’ hand and rubbed the scabbed over knuckles. “She used to put rat poison in my food so I was sick, then yell that I was ungrateful. Father tried to help but he couldn’t prove anything so nothing happened.”

Reid noticed Boris eyeing the space between her and them, so she took one more step before kneeling down and opening her arms out. The boys followed her invite and knelt down, Boris picking the story up where Richie left off.

“She was a bitch, bad talking Eddie and Bev.” Richie stepped in.

“Eddies’ my boyfriend and Bevs’ the girl that got me clothes shopping. I wasn’t Mums perfect doll anymore.” Reid nodded and clenched her jaw.

“Boris”

“You are aware that there will be consequences for this don’t you?” He nodded and looked at the boys beside him.

“Help them. I’ll come and plead guilty to jail but save them from their bad parents. Please” Reid nodded and pulled her phone out, speed dialling Garcia.

“Fountain of knowledge, check my flow”

“Garcia I need a background check on the Tozier parents and the Wheeler parents. Look for anything that could hint at abuse or negligence. Boris is willing to plead guilty if he has the assurance that his brothers are safe.”

“Three noise complaints from the Wheelers’ neighbours talking about a boys voice yelling out. Nothing regarding his sisters. The Toziers weren’t under any suspect but the town itself is known for Paedophiles and child abusers and Serial killers going free so…”

“What can we do?”

“Boris is our Unsub. We can pass Mike and Richie off as kidnapped victims and get them into protective custody. It would make sense for the Agent assigned to look after them is one that has talked down the killer before.” Reid knew what she was getting at.

“You can get Mike and Richie into my custody while the trial goes ahead. After that?”

“Richie should be able to stay with his father if we can prove that he tried to stop the abuse. Mike, I don’t know.”

“If Mr Tozier is cleared of any and all abuse and is shown to be a good parent, could he apply for guardianship of Mike? As Richies’ brother.”

“He can certainly try.”

“Great, thanks Garcia.”

“My love is strong!”

Reid pocketed her phone and looked at the boys.

“Did you hear any of that?” All three boys nodded their heads and stayed seated. Reid also stayed seated, texting Garcia to get her started on the boys’ paperwork. They sat there until lunch, Prentiss leaving by 8 am and coming back with breakfast from the diner in town. She walked towards the boys but stopped when they flinched back. Spencer stood up and walked back to the others, ignoring her gun on the ground and Hotchs’ furious face. She took the food back and sat criss-cross where she was, sliding the food towards the boys.

Mike had gone back into the house and emerged with books and games for them. He even had a Rubik’s cube for Spencer. She solved it almost immediately but Mike simply took it again and mixed it up. They waited a few more hours until Garcia called back with the good news. Mike and Richie were officially under Reids’ protective custody until Boris was in prison. That would give Mr Tozier time to fill out the paperwork needed to get guardianship of both boys.

With that fact now set in stone; Boris stood and turned away from them, putting his hands behind his back. Reid stepped forward and secured his wrists, whispering “I’m so proud of you” before leading him back down the path and into a cop car.

Reid huffed a sigh and turned back to the two boys, picking her gun back up and holstering it.

“Alright you two, you’re with me. Come on”

The boys jumped to follow her, pressing their hands against the glass of the window separating them and Boris. She placed her hands on their shoulders’ and gently tugged them away. Making a mental note, she needed to ask the boys how long they had had contact with Boris. They wouldn’t have formed an attachment to Boris this strong in the small amount of time they had thought they had spent together.

Spencer grabbed two to-go bags from the trunk and asked the boys to go to Mikes from to grab clothes and any trinkets they wanted. While the boys ran off into the house, Spencer took a deep breath and turned to face Hotch.

“Dr Reid, you better have a damn good explanation for what the hell you just did!” Ooh, the swear words had come out.

“I stayed late last night and realised that Richie didn’t look like his parents. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to look into it. As always though – I was right!”

“Reid, you left your gun behind while facing a killer. The only thing worse would have been to take your vest off.”

“I was willing to do that too.”

“Don’t. Don’t tell me that.” Spencer shrugged and saw the boys re-emerge, waving them over. She got them both in an SUV before sliding into the driver’s seat. Hotch slid into place next to her with his phone out. “I’m telling your father.”

Reid damned near crashed the car.

“WHAT! WHY!”

“Because you stayed late when you know you’re not meant to. You holstered your gun without permission, you DROPPED your gun! You got two victims into your protective custody when they don’t really need to. And now you’re talking back to your chief.”

“Mulinello ( _Whirlwind_ ) did what!” A new voice entered the conversation via Hotchs’ phone. Spencer groaned,

“Hi Padre ( _Father_ )”

“You’re in trouble Signorina ( _Young Lady_ ) don’t try to science your way out of it”

“I’m a grown woman who lives on her own! The boys will be in the apartment with me. Got nothing to do with you, Padre.”

“Oh, Mulinello what am I going to do with you?” Spencer smiled,

“Love me, feed me and never let me get bored.”

“Oh, all right Intelligentone ( _Smartass_ ) you win this round. But you’re bringing them over for dinner at the weekend”

“Deal, Rimanga sicuro!”

“Rimanga sicuro” Mike popped between the seats suddenly as Hotch hung up.

“Dr Reid?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“I know a little Italian, what you said at the end wasn’t ‘love you’.” Reid laughed softly.

“No, it wasn’t. My father is also an FBI agent. Instead of saying ‘love you’ at the end of our conversations, we say ‘Rimanga sicuro’ which means ‘stay safe’. It seemed to fit us better”

Mike nodded his head and retreated to the back seat with Richie, seemingly happy with his answer. Reid just continued her drive, happily ignoring the burning gaze of Hotch to her side.


End file.
